Let me explain…
You cannot smurf on an account you own. Smurfing is a term that was created over 20 years ago back in Quake 2 days and maybe even before that, when teams would substitute players with a better player that was not on the roster though better isn’t the requirement here. Most of the time this was due to technical issues or schedule conflicts and since teams didn’t want to play a man down they would get a “smurf” or sometimes called a ringer, as a substitute. Also you saw this behavior proliferate the ladders towards end of competitive seasons.
The only way they kinda dealt with it is by requiring all members listed on the roster to submit a GUID. Basically a hash or hexadecimal number that expresses your activation key to your game, but if your IP didn’t match the GUID, there was an adjudication process. I digress though.
If you are actually playing on an account you own, it’s your account so it’s not smurfing. If your brother in T500 plays on your Gold Account, that is smurfing. If your brother who is T500 plays on your T500 account, that is smurfing. The RANK and skill level HAS NOTHING to do with the word smurfing.
What most, if not all of the OW community calls smurfing is really called SANDBAGGING. But I guess smurfing sounds cooler than sandbagging. If you play POOL, you understand the term sandbagging. (Losing/playing poorly on purpose)
Not to be confused with throwing though. 
They have different motives and adjendas.
Now I don’t expect this to change the way we refrence people not playing like they should but at least now you guys know the truth behind the words.
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so smurfs are bad?
just kidding, you know, now what Cuthbert has been saying is possible. Is it possible to sandbag in a game that does not have a handicap mechanic? discuss amongst yourselves
Anytime a team relies on individual performance as a collective effort, there can be sandbagging.
you’re missing a component to the definition. the individual performance must be carried over to the next game. You cannot sandbag one game. There must be a minimum of two games for the act of sandbagging to be complete.
My internet in the mid 90’s wasn’t good enough to allow me to play games online, so I wasn’t around the community at the time, but a quick Google search seems to indicate that your etymology is incorrect.
This is one of many pages I found which all agree on the basic premise behind the original use of “smurfing” in relation to gaming:
_https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/17209/where-does-the-term-smurfing-come-from
Words have usages, not meaning. The definition of words change based on how the population uses them.
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You’re right, that’s why this thread is about the etymology of the term, not just the current meaning.
Sandbagging does not cover the range of possibility of smurfing. There needs to be an easy word to describe playing at a lower elo than your rank and still trying to win. Smurfing has been used for purposes similar to this for at least a decade (an eternity in online gaming) so whether or not your claim of its initial meaning is correct doesn’t really matter. It was a made up word to begin with and its meaning is defined by how it’s used. If 99.9% of people understand smurfing to mean something that’s what it means within that context.
Okay, so I guess that
Is not about how to use the word and what the meaning of the word is.
Not only that, but I have heard a completely different origin story for the term smurfing and others have already linked pages that contradict his position.
Actually smurfing originally referred to children who would paint themselves blue and dress as smurfs, primarily during holidays in October. Example, “What are you doing this Halloween?” Answer, “Why I’m smurfing.”
Do you know anyone that has only played 1 game within OW and stopped? We are talking in the context of a player (someone who plays often) intentionally not playing to his or her full capability or making a conscious effort to change the outcome of the game in a negative way (perceived negative by others) by losing*
The fact that sandbagging requires a person to play more than one game is meaningless in this narrative.
before you can play comp with an alt account…you have to reach lvl 25…the game will have already placed you in your skill tier by lvl 2(roughly 6 games). so we can assume 2 things. A bought account used for seal clubbing (Some people are just that pathetic), or a player is taking a gamble on “luck” to get a better comp rating than alternate accounts…these poor suckers have a psychological problem too…
they place their self esteem on a meaningless number, to attempt to garner the respect and attention they are unwilling to give themselves. Detach yourself from the number, and 2 things will happen. your stress levels will decrease (no more jitters so you can actually aim), and second; not having unrealistic expectations.
if a game puts you against opponents where both players on your team have an almost 50 % chance of winning…that would mean your team has 150/300% chance of winning against the enemy team and your chance of winning would be 50/300% which is 17%.